We departed Honey Harbor bright and early on Wednesday and continued north up the small craft passage up the eastern shore of Georgian Bay. After an overnight at Henry's (famous fish restaurant accessible only by boat or plane) on Frying Pan Island (Sans Souci area), we anchored in Ruddy Bay about six miles from Henry’s in the Moon River area of Ontario’s Massasauga Provincial Park. It is a beautiful area with only a few cabins and many hiking trails. We had a quiet anchorage and although some strong winds were predicted, they never showed up. There were many other beautiful anchorages in this area which we explored in our dingy and we were sorry we could not have stayed at more. The plaque in the photo below which is on a cross on next to Henry's honors Samuel de Champlain who was the first European to pass through this area almost 400 years ago. Over the weekend we will be staying at the port of Parry Sound which is a major metropolis compared to other places we have been. They even have a McDonald's, Home Depot, WalMart, Subway and a Little Caesar's pizza but it's still just another small town in Canada. Storms and high winds came through on Friday night so we were glad we were at a dock. For you hockey fans this was the hometown of Bobby Orr where they have a museum in his honor just up from the marina.
The passage along the small craft route, except for a few legs where you must go “outside” on the open waters of Georgian Bay, is very well protected and well marked for navigation. Most all of the passage is natural except for a few spots that had to be blasted to a depth of six feet to make them navigable by most boats. Those areas were evident when the name contained the word “narrows” or “cut” and barely had room for two larger boats to pass. It’s a common practice to send a “Security” (pronounced SAY-CURE-IT-TAY) notice on the radio warning boats approaching the other entrance when you are coming through and how big you are. The small craft passage was mapped out in the 1950’s by a boating enthusiast who wanted a safe route along the treacherous east side of Georgian Bay.
Our trip up to this point has been interesting in that it was nothing like we imagined this passage would look like. Unlike most of the Great Lakes routes we've experienced this place looks like any medium to large lake just about anywhere in the east. It's a myriad of fingers, bays, and coves and you rarely get a glimpse of the open water of Georgian Bay. I understand that will change a bit as we get farther north but it's still fairly protected nonetheless. Sheri has done a great job reading our charts and letting me know what color (red or green) and where the next bouy or shore marker is located. The bouys we pass are rarely more than a 1/4 mile apart so it's a busy job just keeping up. We are also glad to have the very detailed strip charts for this area so that we follow the route exactly. Going the direction we are traveling the "red right returning" rule is in effect for which side to pass the bouys on which makes following the route much less confusing. As you can see from the one picture on this post there are many a damaged prop in thia area. The two videos below show just how tight things are.
No comments:
Post a Comment